Hailey, Idaho

Hailey is located at 43°30′54″N 114°18′23″W (43.514937, -114.306251),[9] at an elevation of 5,318 feet (1,621 m) above sea level.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.65 square miles (9.45 km²), all of it land.[10]

Hailey has a continental Mediterranean climate (Köppen Dsb). Winters are cold and snowy: there are an average of forty-four days each year which fail to top 32 °F or 0 °C, whilst 199 nights fall below freezing and nineteen nights between November and March will fall to or below 0 °F or −17.8 °C. Spring warms up slowly, with snow falling as late as May. Summer is hot during the day, but cools off into the 40s or 50s at night. Highs reach 90 °F or 32.2 °C on only 15 days per year, and only July has made it to 100 °F or 37.8 °C. Freezing nights can happen any time of the year, even in July and August. There is little rain, coming only as isolated showers or storms a few times per month. Most days are sunny and this is the driest part of the year. Fall starts warm in September and then quickly cools off. Snow has fallen in September, but usually holds off until October. Early fall is dry and sunny like summer. Days in the 70s can happen well into October, but −20 °F or −28.9 °C has been recorded in November. The lowest temperature recorded was −28 °F (−33.3 °C) on January 12, 1963 and the record high is 100 °F (37.8 °C) on July 19, 1953. Precipitation falls primarily as snow in winter and as thunderstorms in late spring. The rest of the year is mostly dry.

The Blaine County School System, located in Hailey, provides several schools for local children. Hailey Elementary is located in the center of Hailey, and the new Alturas Elementary is located in the south of the city. Wood River Middle School lies north of downtown, and Wood River High School sits near the Foxmoor subdivision.

The Silver Creek Alternative School provides a different avenue for students who have struggled in a typical school setting.

The College of Southern Idaho's Blaine Country Center is located in Hailey.

Private education options in the area include the Sage School in Hailey for 6th through 12th grade students and the Community School in neighboring Sun Valley for elementary through high school students.

Philadelphia Smelter in Hailey, Idaho, 1884

Hailey is surrounded by the Sawtooth National Forest. Activities such as hiking, biking, skiing, snowboarding, BMX riding, skateboarding, horseback riding, ice skating and fly fishing are popular in Hailey. Hailey was home to the Sun Valley Polo Club until 1999.[12]

West of town, Hailey has its own ski hill called Rotarun Ski Area, which is much smaller than its local cousin at the Sun Valley Resort.

Other mountains in Hailey are Carbonate, Red Devil Peak (6594 ft.), and Della (6729 ft.). These mountains are popular for hiking, mountain biking, dog walking and other outdoor activities.

The Friedman Memorial Airport provides direct flights to Salt Lake City, and Seattle most year round. Direct flights to Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco and Chicago are available seasonally. The airport has a private terminal for small jets. Herbert Allen Jr.'s annual summer executive retreat, Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference is a regular client of Friedman Memorial Airport. Idaho Highway 75 runs past the airport.

Friedman Memorial Airport is named for Simon Moses Friedman, a Jewish merchant and sheep rancher who settled in Hailey in the 1880s and was elected its first mayor when the city was incorporated in 1909. His children Leon and Lucile Friedman donated the land for the airport to the city in 1931.[13]

Basque Wagon at Trailing of the Sheep Festival in Hailey

Hailey is the home to Sun Valley Magazine, a quarterly publication focusing on fine dining, real estate and local events. Hailey has two local newspapers: The Idaho Mountain Express and The Weekly Sun. The Idaho Mountain Express is located in Ketchum and is published every Wednesday and Friday. The Weekly Sun is located in Hailey and is published every Wednesday.

Snowboard Magazine was founded in Hailey, Idaho in the year 2004 by local resident Mark Sullivan. The magazine quickly grew to the 3rd largest snowboarding publication in the world before being sold to Storm Mountain Publishing in 2007.

KHLY at 1440 AM is Hailey’s only AM radio station and repeated in Sun Valley at 103.7 FM. KECH at 95.3 FM is another local radio station based in Hailey and licensed to the city of Sun Valley along with KSKI-FM at 94.5 FM.

Plum TV premiered in 2007 from Hailey, Idaho. Plum TV was a boutique network serving resort communities. Plum TV ultimately went bankrupt and their Hailey and Ketchum LPTV (low power television) licenses were surrendered back to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The community of Hailey is currently served by Cox Cable carriage of full power, network affiliated, nearby television stations KMVT Channel 11 CBS Twin Falls, KSVT Channel 14 FOX Twin Falls, KTVB Channel 7 NBC Boise, KIVI, Channel 6 ABC Boise and KBOI Channel 2 CBS also of Boise.

Every year, the town of Hailey, Idaho celebrates Independence Day as Days of the Old West. The celebration consists of four major events. Main Street is cleared and the sidewalks fill with spectators. At noon, a mock old west shoot out takes place in the centre of town. The next event is a parade. After the parade, spectators gather at Hop Porter Park for food and music. Activities also include a rodeo and fireworks.

The poet Ezra Pound was born in Hailey.

In 1988, Bruce Willis and his then wife Demi Moore moved to Hailey and spent millions revitalizing the downtown and buying up land.[14] The actor renovated buildings, opened a diner, bought a dive bar and a movie theater on the main street, and arranged for a Virginian theater group to relocate to the town.[15] He initially did so anonymously, purchasing the establishments and vacant lots under the name of his company, Ix Nay Investment Trust.[16] Local journalists eventually blew his cover, much to Willis' dismay. His establishments would go on to employ a significant percentage of the small town's active population. In May 1998, he abruptly closed Shorty's (the diner) and the Mint (the dive bar), putting many Hailey residents out of work. Additionally, he withdrew most investments from the town, leaving many outstanding projects unrealized.[17] In 2018, he sold his 20-acre ranch in Hailey for $5.5 million.[18]

Other notable residents include:

• Bowe Bergdahl, United States Army held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan
• Tara Buck, actress
• Shane Carden, Football Player
• Dorothy Custer, TV host, harmonicist, centenarian
• Laverne Fator, U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey
• Simon J. Friedman, businessman and Jewish community leader
• Simon M. Friedman, businessman and politician
• Chase Josey, snowboarder
• Pamela Sue Martin, actress
• Debbie McDonald, dressage Olympian
• Bob Mizer, photographer
• Ezra Pound, poet
• E. Parry Thomas, banker[19]
• Leopold Werthheimer, businessman and philanthropist
• Mats Wilander, tennis player
• Rumer Willis, actress, Dancing with the Stars winner

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hailey, Idaho.

• City of Hailey
• Chamber of Commerce—Hailey, Idaho